For over 20 years, Connie Williams Coulianos and Dr. Esther Kogan have been working in the field of gifted education—Coulianos most recently as the master teacher at Hollingworth Preschool at Teachers College, Columbia University and Kogan on Hollingworth’s admissions committee and as director of the early childhood graduate program at Adelphi University. They’ve delighted in the opportunity to work with bright young minds, but also wondered what happened when the “precocious” preschoolers they taught left for kindergarten.
Recognizing the need for a school focused on gifted children beyond preschool, the two women, along with a group of dedicated parents and educators, have created The Speyer Legacy School. Opening its doors this September on West 61st Street, it will have a kindergarten and a combined first and second grade class to start—with the plan being to grow to two classes per grade, through 8th grade. As they prepare for their inaugural fall semester, Coulianos, Speyer’s head of school, and Kogan, Speyer’s executive director, talked about their unique vision.
You’ve both been working with gifted children at the preschool level for many years. Why start a school for K-8 now?
Connie: There has been an ongoing conversation about the need to have a particular approach and philosophy in support of precocious kids beyond preschool, and in recent years as the level of competition for spots [in schools] has become more intense, it became evident that there was a need for it. The right people came together—we call them the group of founding families—and stepped forward to make the school a reality by putting forth the effort and support needed to find a space and provide the start-up. It was sort of serendipitous—at the time this launched back in January, our leadership team was reading Malcolm Gladwell’s book, “Outliers.”
In it, there was the recognition that having a high IQ and the potential for accomplishment is only realized when the opportunity and the support of the community for that potential exist.
Is “precocious” another term for gifted?
Esther: Precocious in our philosophy has more of an emphasis on potential. If we talk about giftedness, it’s something that’s already there, and has very little to do with education—you’re gifted and you perform at a certain level. When you talk about precocious children, it implies that it’s something to be developed. And it’s not just something that will happen at school. It’s something that can happen working with parents and other educators.
What’s the connection between your school and The Speyer Legacy School that was founded in 1936 and has since closed?
Connie: One of the members of our founding board—their children are grandchildren of one of the original Speyer scholars, who attended the original The Speyer Legacy School. Like the original school our philosophy is that our students have needs that fall outside what is generally addressed in a typical classroom. Our program is geared to respond to that, and to have a great level of flexibility, where we are building the curriculum around the children. It is based on the work of [the psychologist] Dr. Leta Hollingworth—revitalizing and re-imagining it in the 21st century. There’s an emphasis on the children’s development not only intellectually but socially and emotionally.
How do parents know
if their child would be a good fit for your school? What makes a
precocious learner?
Connie: Precocious children have what we call a rage to
master—an intensity and passion for learning and a never-ending quest
for information. Precocious development can be evident in many different
areas. In some cases it’s verbal—having a conversation with a child on a
level that far exceeds what you would expect. In other cases it can be
interpersonal—a child who has the ability to relate to, and empathize
with, people on a very sophisticated level. It can also be
spatial—children doing incredible buildings or artwork.
Do precocious learners
face any unique challenges you’ll be addressing?
Connie: One is
perfectionism. Children with high abilities have pretty high
expectations of themselves and will often not attempt to do anything
they can’t do perfectly.
We do a lot of thinking about our best
work even at the preschool age: what constitutes your best work and
under what circumstances is your best work required and when is it
important just to get the job done?
Esther: Precocious children can have an
uneven development. It might be that cognitively they have a high
profile, but the social and emotional profile might be at age or below.
Part of the philosophy we want to communicate is that we’re looking to
educate the mind and the body and the soul of these children.
What will the curriculum
at The Speyer Legacy School look like?
Connie: We want to
address with children the notion of education. As adults, we say you go
to school to get an education, but what does that mean to a child? With
this population, my experience is that they are very keen on discussing
[the meaning behind why they’re learning and what they’re learning]. We
want to hit that head on by including them in the conversation.
Esther:
Also, by bringing on adjuncts, we plan to expose the students to a
range of people who are passionate about what they do, both in
one-on-one settings and in small groups. We’ll be having two art
adjuncts, two music adjuncts, and an adjunct specializing in the science
of nutrition and agriculture. Because if the children are interested in
something, they tend to want to know everything about it—the taxonomy,
the classification, the technology, etc.
Connie: By
approaching [a subject] with several different instructors, who offer
different perspectives on their [expertise], it exposes the students to
the fact that the discipline is gigantic, and that there is more than
one way to look at everything.
Probably more important to us
than intellectual devel opment is the need for children to be good
people, to have the ability to relate to other children and adults, and
show respect. So we do quite a lot with exploring the concepts of
unacceptable and acceptable behavior in our society. We expect each
class to come up with a list of what is required to be safe and happy
and to learn productively.
It sounds like the children will have a say in what they’re
learning.
Connie: Our plan is to create this program around
the children rather than create the program and bring the children to
it. Schools usually send out a summer reading list saying, here’s what
you should be reading. Here, even as we’re starting, we’re sending out a
sheet to the children asking them what they are reading because we’re
putting together our library and want to know which books to get.
What is your
application process like?
Connie: We see test assessment as only one
piece of information. We also include input from parents, teachers,
observations from our own onsite assessment. We approach it as a full
profile of a student, rather than just look at the test score. Our
process this year will be in line with traditional private school
admissions, though we’ll be offering rolling admissions for our first,
second and third grade classes as long as there is space available.
Esther:
It’s interesting that in looking at the [test] scores of the
children we accept, they do have a high score, but it’s not set at a
specific quota. We don’t want to exclude children who come from
different backgrounds, who may have never been exposed to [this type of
testing situation], or even bilingual children for whom that’s just not
the way they think.
What
is the biggest joy of opening a new school?
Esther: The freedom
to create something with our teaching philosophy. That’s a gift.
Connie: I spent 23
years only being able to have my students for two years. I’ve longed to
go with them, to see what happens. So, being able to watch their
development and be a part of it from kindergarten through 8th grade is
going to be such a joy.
Being a new school, how do you get parents to take a leap of
faith and come on board?
Connie: It’s only going to be courageous and
forwardthinking people who are willing to take the risk with us—and any
new endeavor is a risk. But we have found families who see the benefit
to their children of this type of school and who are ready to help us
build it. b
For
more information on The Speyer Legacy School and to obtain admissions
materials, call 646-510-0515 or visit speyerlegacyschool.org.
